Mob Museum
Seven Days
A curated guide to this week in your city
April 24th, 2013
Get political with Protectors of the State: A Conversation with Three Former Governors at the Mob Museum courtroom. Nevada Governors Bob List, Richard Bryan and Bob Miller participate in the panel discussion, plus a signing of Miller’s Son of a Gambling Man. Read more »
About Town
Mobbing the Mob Museum
One year later, is Oscar’s dream a box-office hit?
February 7th, 2013
When the Mob Museum opened a year ago, expectations were high. Championed by former mayor and mob lawyer Oscar Goodman, designed by Dennis and Kathleen Barrie—the duo behind Washington, D.C.’s International Spy Museum (he also did the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland)—and set up in the old Federal Courthouse where the Kefauver Committee hearings took place in 1950, the museum was aiming for more than to be a cozy local institution. Rather, it was tasked with bringing both cultural luster and tourists Downtown. All this in a town that buries museums the way a hit man dumps bodies in the desert. Read more »
Three Times a Museum-Goer
January 31st, 2013
The first time I went to the Mob Museum—during the VIP/Media opening, with pop-up bars distributing free drinks every few feet—I knew that I would have to return at least once. Regardless of the cocktails, it was simply impossible to absorb the massive amounts of information presented within the walls of the former post office in one trip. Read more »
Pop Culture
Married to the Museum
We agree that the Mob Museum was a great addition to the city … but is it any good? We revisit the scene of organized crime a year later.
January 31st, 2013
The National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement celebrates its first anniversary this Valentine’s Day, and attention must be paid. It’s taken me nearly a year to check out the institution colloquially known as “The Mob Museum,” unless you count my hard-hat tour of the renovated Las Vegas Post Office and Courthouse—79 years old, this year—before any of the exhibits were installed. Read more »
Kefauver Day and Unintended Consequences
November 13th, 2012
Nov. 15 is Kefauver Day, complete with a proclamation by Mayor Carolyn Goodman. And if you like ironies and politics, this day is for you. Read more »
The Tell Returns With "I Fought the Law"
October 15th, 2012
On Oct. 18, Vegas Seven and Dayvid Figler present the latest installment of our ongoing storytelling series, The Tell — and this time, we’re laying down the law. Read more »
The Latest
They Come From Everywhere to Study Us
October 11th, 2012
So the Russian gangsters are coming to Las Vegas. Not to take over, but to learn. Maybe to pick up some partners, some investors. Today’s underworld is a global business, where money and experience gets traded from gang to gang. Las Vegas’ high-rolling and freewheeling past may yet become Russia’s future. And thanks to Russia’s mobsters and their dirty money, Las Vegas is going to be acquiring new global competitors very soon. Read more »
The Deal
Gaming the Gangsters
September 13th, 2012
If you don’t know by now, there are two mob exhibits in town—downtown’s Mob Museum and the Tropicana’s Mob Attraction. When they opened, I was high on the one downtown and less so on the one at the Trop. But that was before new ownership made some solid changes at the Trop spot. Read more »
Ex-Mobster’s Tour of Museum Steeped in Memories
July 25th, 2012
Sal Polisi got out of the Mob in 1984 and raised a second family. He writes screenplays, produces movies and visits middle schools to ward students off crime. Read more »
